This document discusses copyright issues related to using course management systems like Blackboard. It outlines the principles of fair use and how the TEACH Act provides exemptions for educational use of copyrighted materials online without permission. It analyzes whether several scenarios involving use of films, photographs, textbooks, and journal articles on Blackboard would be permissible or not according to fair use and TEACH Act guidelines.

1. Copyright Issues for
Course Management
Systems
© Washtenaw Community College 2011
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2. Fair Use
• As more face-to-face, blended & online courses depend
on course management systems, such as Blackboard,
awareness of copyright issues in the online environment
becomes more important.
• Fair Use (Section 107 of 1976 Copyright Act) is the first
principle for use of copyrighted materials by college
instructors when permission to use the materials has not
been obtained.
• Fair Use
o Factor One: Purpose & character of use
Use of copyrighted material permissible for research,
scholarship, teaching, criticism, comment, parody &
transformative uses.
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3. o Factor Two: Nature of the work used.
Fair use tends to apply more to factual works than to
creative works.
o Factor Three: Amount & substantiality of the work
used.
Using a small amount of the work--so long as it does
not constitute the heart of the work--tends toward fair
use more than using a large amount.
o Factor Four: Effect of use on the market.
To what extent does one’s use of the copyrighted work
impact the market for the creator?
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4. Technology, Education & Copyright
Harmonization Act (TEACH)
• The TEACH Act of 2002 amends Sections 110 & 112
of the Copyright Act for the online environment.
• The Act provides a safe harbor for use of
copyrighted material in an online environment
when permission of the copyright holder has not
been obtained.
• Consider the following TEACH Act provisions when
deciding whether one’s use of copyrighted
material on Blackboard will be protected:
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5. • Material is lawfully acquired.
The copyrighted work is a legally acquired copy in the
first place, as opposed to, e.g., a pirated copy.
• Material is part of systematic mediated instructional
activities & integral to the course.
Use of the copyrighted work is integrated into an
instructor-mediated course serving educational
purposes. (Note that not all non-profit uses are
educational uses, e.g., showing a feature film by a
student club.)
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6. • Copyright notice & warning are present.
Using copyrighted material on Blackboard requires a
copyright notice, which serves as a warning for
students against illegal downstream reproduction &
distribution:
Notice: This work is protected by copyright. The
copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code)
governs the making of photocopies or other
reproductions of copyrighted material. The person who
engages in further reproduction and distribution in
violation of U.S. copyright law may be liable for
copyright infringement.
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7. • Material is not a substitute for textbooks or
coursepacks typically purchased by students.
Material used may not also serve as a substitute of
copyrighted electronic textbooks or consumables such
as worksheets.
• Material is:
o Non-dramatic literary work (may use all)
If the literary material used is non-dramatic in nature--
without plots--one may use the entire work, e.g.,
poetry.
o Non-dramatic musical work (may use all)
If the musical material used is non-dramatic in nature--
without plots--one may use the entire work, e.g.,
songs, not musicals or operas.
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8. o Reasonable and limited portion of any other work
(e.g., dramatic work) for performance.
If the material is dramatic in nature, one may use
reasonable and limited portions, e.g., novels, plays,
musicals, operas, etc.
o Display of any work in an amount analogous to live
classroom setting.
Similar to Fair Use, Factor Three: Amount &
substantiality of the work used. See slide 3.
• Material is limited to students enrolled in the course
and only for the duration of the course.
That students need to log in to access the Blackboard
course site and that the course is made unavailable at
the end of the course help meet this requirement.
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9. • Reasonable downstream controls are in place to
prevent retention and distribution of material
beyond class.
In general, when one uses copyrighted material, one
should use links or thumbnails rather than
downloading the entire works. ITS also helps secure
the Blackboard server and its contents in this regard.
• Material is stored on a secure server and
transmitted only as permitted by law.
ITS is in charge of making the Blackboard server secure
behind a firewall and password-protected.
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10. • For conversion of analog material to digital, consider
the following:
o Digital version is not available for purchase or
licensing in the marketplace.
o Digital version is protected against further
unauthorized reproduction and distribution.
o Digital version is only retained for authorized use
under TEACH Act.
o Only reasonable and limited portions are used.
o Fair Use factors apply.
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11. • U.S. Copyright Office’s 2010
Rulemaking on Circumvention of
Technological Controls
o Motion pictures on DVD:
Circumvention of access controls permissible in
order to incorporate short portions into new works for
the purpose of :
 Criticism or comment
 Educational use by college & university professors
 Educational use by college & university film & media
studies students
 Documentary filmmaking
 Non-commercial videos
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12. • Recent Court Cases:
o UCLA sued by the Association for Information Media
& Ambrose Video Publishing for digitizing and
streaming the university’s DVD library.
o Georgia State University sued by Cambridge
University Press, Oxford University Press, and Sage
Publications for violating their copyrights on the
university’s ERes and uLearn systems.
o Supreme Court will hear a case that will determine if
Congress has the right to restore copyright protection
to foreign works that have fallen into the public
domain in the U.S. while still copyrighted abroad.
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13. • Scenarios:
1. An instructor in our department would like to stream
several sci-fi films in their entirety for limited amounts of
time on a password-protected Blackboard course site for
her class.
Permissible, if the instructor teaching in the subject matter
of sci-fi films streams the digital files legally owned or
licensed by the library.
2. A student club wants to stream the entire documentary
“Food, Inc.” to interested members of the club and the
public on its website.
Not permissible. Although this is non-profit use, it is not
educational use of the copyrighted material.
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14. • Scenarios:
3. An instructor would like to digitize his personal, lawfully
acquired DVD and stream it to his class on the
Blackboard course site.
Not permissible. The conversion of formats requires that
certain conditions be met. See slide 10.
4. An instructor recorded a TV episode of The Bold & the
Beautiful on DVD and put it on library reserves for his
online class on popular culture.
Permissible. DVD can be performed for 10 days after
recording, and kept for another 35 days for the instructor’s
review. Not repeatable in subsequent semesters.
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15. • Scenarios:
5. A department purchased a collection of b&w photographs of
the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, and an instructor
would like to digitize some of these pictures for her
Blackboard course site.
Questionable. The department may obtain digitization permission
from the publisher. Absent that, the conversion of formats
requires that certain conditions be met. See slide 10.
6. A Math instructor uses a textbook for his online class. He
owns a lawfully acquired copy, and so do his students. He
would like to digitize some worksheets from that textbook for
his Blackboard course site.
Not permissible. Worksheets are considered consumables and do
not fall under TEACH Act provisions. See slide 7.
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16. • Scenarios:
7. The library has a current subscription to an e-journal
database. An instructor would like to post a full-text
article from the database on her Blackboard course site.
Permissible. The library has licensed the database for
educational uses.
8. The library provides access to 90,000 e-books. An
instructor wants to require one as supplemental reading by
providing a link on his Blackboard course site for his
students.
Permissible. The library has licensed the e-books for
educational uses.
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17. • Scenarios:
9. An instructor owns a lawfully acquired VHS tape with an
accompanying audiocassette tape. As these formats are
old, she would like to digitize them for instructional use.
Not permissible. VHS is not yet considered an obsolete
format. The conversion of formats requires that certain
conditions be met. See slide 10.
10. An instructor owns a book published in 1920. She would
like to digitize it for her Blackboard course site.
Permissible. Material published before 1923 is in the public
domain.
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18. • For further information on
copyright rules & the TEACH Act:
o http://www4.wccnet.edu/copyright
o http://copyright.lib.utexas.edu/teachact.html
o http://www.provost.ncsu.edu/copyright/toolkit
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